Life After Tetairoa McMillan for Arizona

Over the last three years, Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita has had his top target and best friend Tetairoa McMillan with him by his side. The duo have played football together for as long as you can think of and played together in high school and with the Wildcats becoming a dynamic duo.

When Fifita finally took over the starting job during the 2023 season, the connection with McMillan looked like it didn’t skip a beat as the two helped the Wildcats go 7-2 after a 2-1 start leading to an Alamo Bowl appearance and win over Oklahoma.

Although the 2024 season didn’t go as planned with the Wildcats finishing 4-8 after starting the year in the AP Poll Top 25 at No. 21, the connection to Fifita and McMillan was still clicking and extremely exciting for Arizona fans to watch.

At times though, it seemed that Fifita had a hard time finding anyone else besides McMillan making it easier for the defenses to game plan against the Wildcats.

However, in all fairness to Fifita, there weren’t many options outside of McMillan. The Wildcats struggled to find another reliable option for their starting quarterback.

It wasn’t until the blowout loss to Central Florida that Arizona was able to find another weapon in the receiving room. The Wildcats were able to find that weapon in receiver Chris Hunter, who had his breakout game with seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown.

It was an issue that the coaching staff went out during the offseason and worked on fixing, especially with McMillan leaving for the NFL.

Arizona added four transfer wide receivers in Luke Wysong, Tre Spivey, Javin Whatley and Kris Hunter. Three of the four players have played a ton of football at their previous schools and bring much needed experience to the room.

Plus, Arizona had a recruiting class that featured two high-level receivers in Gio Richardson and Isaiah Mizell, who might be able to break into the rotation at some point during the 2025 season.

Fifita will have more weapons this upcoming season.

Is there a McMillan type of talent?

No, that is someone that you just can’t fill the shoes of.

However, Arizona will be deeper than the previous season, which the staff is hoping to lead to more success for Fifita, the offense and the team as a whole as they try to turn things around.